Restaurant formerly owned by chef who commited suicide in September has closed

By WILLIAM LAMB

STAFF WRITER |

The Record

FAIR LAWN — Campania, the restaurant whose former owner, Joseph Cerniglia, leapt to his death from the George Washington Bridge in September, has closed, the restaurant’s chef confirmed Tuesday.

Philip Neuman, the managing director of Campania Holding Corp., which purchased the restaurant from Cerniglia eight days before his Sept. 24 suicide, plans to reopen the restaurant under a new name early next year, according to Campania’s chef, Everald Gayle.

Neuman could not be reached. Gayle said Neuman did not give employees a reason for the temporary closure beyond saying he planned to renovate the restaurant, at 17-15 Broadway.

A woman who answered the phone at the restaurant Tuesday by saying, “Welcome to what used to be Campania,” confirmed that the restaurant had closed.

“It might reopen in four weeks or two months but under another name and with another liquor license,” she said.

Cerniglia’s suicide drew national attention because of his 2007 appearance on the Fox reality show “Kitchen Nightmares,” in which he openly discussed Campania’s precarious financial state.

In October, Neuman, Cerniglia’s former business partners and his widow, Melissa, were named in a lawsuit filed by Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, which has received competing claims for the proceeds of a $600,000 life insurance policy.

Restaurant formerly owned by chef who commited suicide in September has closed

By WILLIAM LAMB

STAFF WRITER |

The Record

FAIR LAWN — Campania, the restaurant whose former owner, Joseph Cerniglia, leapt to his death from the George Washington Bridge in September, has closed, the restaurant’s chef confirmed Tuesday.

Philip Neuman, the managing director of Campania Holding Corp., which purchased the restaurant from Cerniglia eight days before his Sept. 24 suicide, plans to reopen the restaurant under a new name early next year, according to Campania’s chef, Everald Gayle.

Neuman could not be reached. Gayle said Neuman did not give employees a reason for the temporary closure beyond saying he planned to renovate the restaurant, at 17-15 Broadway.

A woman who answered the phone at the restaurant Tuesday by saying, “Welcome to what used to be Campania,” confirmed that the restaurant had closed.

“It might reopen in four weeks or two months but under another name and with another liquor license,” she said.

Cerniglia’s suicide drew national attention because of his 2007 appearance on the Fox reality show “Kitchen Nightmares,” in which he openly discussed Campania’s precarious financial state.

In October, Neuman, Cerniglia’s former business partners and his widow, Melissa, were named in a lawsuit filed by Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, which has received competing claims for the proceeds of a $600,000 life insurance policy.